Archive for February, 2012

The time-consuming process currently in place to get aboard MCB base- waiting in line at the visitor’s center, waiting for a sponsor to meet you at the gate, and filling out paperwork can now all be avoided – the web-based Personnel Access Sponsorship System, or PASS is now fully implemented. It can be accessed internally by DOD personnel at: https://lejeune.mcieast.usmc.mil/SES/PASS/default.aspx

According to Cpl Coleman of the Globe, “The new system will allow for Department of Defense personnel to vouch for visitors coming aboard base by accessing an application…. The sponsor will then be given a confirmation code which can be used by their guest once they arrive at the visitor center”.

This online application will also allow guests to stand in the express line once at the visitor center- thus streamlining the entire process. All visitors must still provide a driver’s license, state registration and proof of insurance.
Currently, the system can only be accessed on base but the plan is for the program to become available for use on any personal computer in the near future.

Carolina Advanced Digital, Inc. (CAD) is a woman-owned, veteran-owned and privately-held small business specializing in IT infrastructure, security and management solutions. For more than 25 years, CAD has been the leading engineering service and product provider for federal, state and local government agencies as well as health care, education and corporate markets.

If you would like your company to be featured in the business spotlight section, please email your content to Courtney Smedick at smedickc@ncmbc.us.

*The NC Military Business Center, the NC Community College System, and the State of North Carolina do not officially validate, warrant or endorse events, companies or activities listed on this website. These items are posted strictly for the information and convenience of NCMBC customers.

Strategic Consulting Solutions and Deltek are hosting a Government Contracting Event in Charleston, SC on March 22.

Mark Amtower, consultant, author, radio host and co-Director of the Government Market Master professional education program will be the luncheon keynote.

The full day event will provide industry expertise including: a report on industry trends and outlook from Deltek; inside perspective and insight from a former DCAA auditor; expert guidance on EVM, compliant accounting standards, teaming best practices, and more.

This seminar is approved for Continuing Education Credits. Early registration ends March 5.

The General Services Administration wants to create a new government wide acquisition contract for non-IT professional services.

Mary Davie, GSA’s assistant commissioner in the Federal Acquisition Service’s Office of Integrated Technology Services, wrote on her blog today that customer agencies have asked for “total solutions” instead of the “a la carte” professional services bought through existing contracts under the GSA Schedules program.

Davie said her office plans on posting the Integration business case on the OMB MAX Information System for agency review and comment by the end of June. ITS also will release a project schedule to let industry prepare for the request for proposals when it comes out.

In the meantime, Davie will hold a Tweet Chat on Feb. 29 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. to discuss the Integrations GWAC idea.

GSA already held an industry day July 13 and posted responses to questions Aug. 29. GSA expects to issue a draft request for proposals in the spring 2012 and a final RFP by the summer.

Courtney SmedickIntegrated Marketing & Training Development
North Carolina Military Business Center

Courtney Smedick first joined the North Carolina Military Business Center in January 2008. Due to a military PCS move to Texas, for her active duty husband, Ms. Smedick left NCMBC in November 2009. The military returned Ms. Smedick to Fort Bragg in December 2010, where she returned to NCMBC in January 2011 serving as the Integrated Marketing and Training Development Coordinator at NCMBC Headquarters in Fayetteville.

Ms. Smedick’s responsibilities include government relations, development and implementation of statewide business development and training events, and serving as the program manager for NCMBC’s employment programs for transitioning military and military spouses.

In December 2011, Ms. Smedick received her Master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communication from West Virginia University. Prior to her move to North Carolina in 2006, Ms. Smedick attended Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Communication with a strategic focus in Public Relations. While in school she held an internship position with Penn State – Behrend’s Athletics Department, performing sports marketing and public relations activities. Ms. Smedick also held the Advertising Manager position for two years for Slippery Rock University’s award winning newspaper, The Rocket.

Ms. Smedick’s previous work experience includes working at a Fortune 500 insurance company and the marketing director for a large, private medical practice. Ms. Smedick is also an alumnus of the AmeriCorps program, where she volunteered in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and San Diego. During her commitment to AmeriCorps, Ms. Smedick completed over 504 volunteer hours in a ten month timeframe. Due to this achievement, she received the President’s Volunteer Service Award, signed by President George W. Bush.

Ms. Smedick’s office is in the Harry Shaw Virtual College Center building at Fayetteville Technical Community College in Fayetteville. She currently resides in Harnett County with her husband, who is a Physicians Assistant in the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg.

The North Carolina Military Business Center, Coastal Carolina Community College, and Carteret Community College are pleased to host the third annual Camp Lejeune/Cherry Point Small Business Outreach Events.

“Big Changes in Small Business”

Small Business and Acquisition Representatives from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point will provide an update on contract opportunities and current procedures for doing business with the Marine Corps and the United States Navy as well as highlight some of the many changes which have occurred in Federal Acquisitions in the past year.

From implementation of the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act to DOD & Federal reemphasis on Small Business utilization to a dynamic budget climate, change and flexibility have been the operative words. Come as we share what we know and how we can partner in together going forward.

The Defense Department carefully selected the programs it wants to cancel in fiscal 2013 to avoid termination fee negotiations that have plagued the Pentagon in prior years.

In some cases, DoD will simply let existing production contracts expire and take delivery of new aircraft, only to turn around and park them in the desert, just to avoid the headache of stopping these efforts midstream.

“These select number of program kills are really things that … appear to have been very carefully thought out to have the minimum quantity of termination liability associated with them to begin with,” said Jim McAleese, who runs McAleese & Associates, a Virginia-based consulting firm.

This fact could make this year’s cuts less costly than those made in 2010. DoD is still negotiating termination fees with Boeing for the Army’s Future Combat System, which was canceled in 2010.

In the budget submitted Feb. 13, the DoD proposed canceling or changing production schedules for about 20 major programs, a move defense officials claim will save it $75 billion over the next five years.

Although the costs associated with ending these efforts might not be that large, the amount of money already spent on them is substantial — at least $6.8 billion, according to DoD budget documents.

To put this in perspective, the Air Force could have used that money to purchase 47 F-22A Raptors, the Army could have sustained about 80,000 soldiers for a year, the Navy could have purchased almost half an aircraft carrier or Norway could run its entire military.

Over the past 10 years, the Pentagon has spent about $46 billion, using current dollar estimates, on development programs that were terminated and never entered production, according to a July 2011 report by Todd Harrison at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Still, the proposed cancellations themselves are not likely to cost DoD much. It appears that the programs eyed for axing in 2013 are not locked into multiyear or extensive contracts, meaning there would be less cost incurred by DoD when canceling them.

The cost of canceling the programs in 2013 is dependent on the type of contract. How the government cancels a contract is also a factor. If the government terminates a contract for cause — meaning poor performance or being over budget — it might not be responsible for a termination fee. Terminating for convenience is a different issue.

“If it’s not well-defined in the contract to get out of the contract, you may have to negotiate to pay even more to a contractor for them to be willing to let you out of it,” Harrison said. “A lot of these savings from cutting these things, these are just estimates. They don’t really know what the termination costs are going to be until they try to do it.”

Calculating the termination cost for these programs is difficult because individual contract language is unique.

“If you … signed a contract and said, ‘We’re going to buy 10 of these platforms.’ They ramp up, hire people and start ordering materials in line with your contract, and when you terminate it, they’ve got costs,” Harrison said.

There are enough funds from within existing program accounts to cover termination liabilities, Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins, a Pentagon spokeswoman, wrote in an email on Friday. DoD has just begun termination discussions with contractors, she said.

The proposed cancellations and program restructures in 2013 are part of a Pentagon goal to cut $487 billion in planned spending from its budget over the next decade. The cuts were mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011, a law designed to help lower the U.S. deficit.

The first part of those cuts, totaling about $259 billion, is outlined in DoD’s 2013 budget proposal, which was submitted Feb. 13.

The Air Force has spent $3.4 billion developing and purchasing 18 Block 30 Global Hawk aircraft, according to Jennifer Cassidy, a service spokeswoman.

The service — which had originally planned to buy 42 Block 30 Global Hawks —- has not yet issued a stop-work order to Northrop.

The Air Force has issued a stop-work order on the Boeing C-130 AMP, which was about to begin initial flight tests. The company has delivered three modified aircraft and the Air Force has modified one on its own using the upgrade kit built by Boeing, said Jennifer Hogan, a Boeing spokeswoman.

Budget documents show the Air Force has spent at least $2.1 billion on the C-130 avionics program. The Pentagon already has spent at least $1.2 billion buying 21 C-27Js, according to budget documents.

In all, the Air Force has received 12 of 21 ordered C-27Js. Two of those aircraft are operating in Afghanistan. The Air Force plans to take delivery of the remaining C-27J and then retire them. It also plans to retire the Block 30 Global Hawks.

All together, DoD says canceling these three programs will save it $5.2 billion over the next five years, $2.5 billion for Global Hawk, $2.3 billion for C-130 AMP and $400 million for C-27J.

While DoD sees savings, particularly from slowing purchases, this move will also raise the per-unit cost of targeted systems in the near term.

“[T]hat’s a fair point,” DoD Comptroller Robert Hale said when asked about stretching program buys out during a Feb. 13 briefing at the Pentagon. “If we had our way, we probably wouldn’t have done it.”

Hale noted that the Budget Control Act required DoD to cut spending.

“We tried to do them in a way that minimized the adverse effects,” Hale said.

The White House has launched the virtual portal that will provide information and resources for small businesses and help entrepreneurs succeed along the way.

Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel announced BusinessUSA.gov Jan. 13 at a luncheon hosted by the Association for Federal Information Resources Management. The website would allow small-business owners to get information one consolidated source instead of several different options, he said.

“Entrepreneurs – especially small-business owners – told us that they don’t have the time or resources to navigate the maze of government agencies and need a one-stop shop where they could go for all the assistance they need at every stage of their development,” Lisa Brown, acting chief performance officer at the Office of Management and Budget, wrote Feb. 17 on the OMBlog.

The online portal will bring together hundreds of business services and programs from 10 different federal agencies, and link to other opportunities from dozens of additional agencies, she said.

“It’s a ‘no wrong door’ approach for small businesses and exporters from the day they need technical assistance to start a business, to the day they start building a product and need financing, to the day they are ready to export and need help breaking into new markets overseas,” Brown wrote.

On the website, business owners can browse the various categories ranging from training to grants to rules. The “Find Resources” section offers guidance for every step of the way of creating, building and expanding a small business. Entrepreneurs can also find business-related events under the “Discover Events” tab, including workshops, classes and luncheons. Event topics range from procurement and alternative funding resources to government contracting.

Currently in its beta phase, the website will expand with the help of visitor feedback. New features and content will be added, and there are plans to open new channels of communication to the BusinessUSA network such as call centers, e-mail and social media.

The North Carolina Military Business Center is pleased to host the 2012 North Carolina Federal Construction (FEDCON) & Infrastructure Summit in Wilmington, North Carolina at the Wilmington Convention Center on October 10-12, 2012.

Reservoir International is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) founded to provide superior training support and to prepare military personnel for the realities of modern battlefields around the globe. The company is based in Fayetteville, NC and owns a 24 acre training facility adjacent to Fort Bragg, NC.

Reservoir is structured to develop and implement a wide variety of scenario-driven training events. This capability is supported with a diverse array of professional cultural trainers, experienced management personnel, and with a unique and current understanding of asymmetric conflict. Reservoir supports military clients from across the spectrum of the U.S. military through exercise management, training and scenario development, and consulting.

Reservoir International

1314 Raeford Road, Suite B

Fayetteville, NC 28305

910.423.8400

www.reservoir-intl.com

If you would like your company to be featured in the business spotlight section, please email your content to Courtney Smedick at smedickc@ncmbc.us.

*The NC Military Business Center, the NC Community College System, and the State of North Carolina do not officially validate, warrant or endorse events, companies or activities listed on this website. These items are posted strictly for the information and convenience of NCMBC customers.